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Eric Purcell

The son of missionaries to Mexico, Eric has been wrestling with missiological questions and responding to a missionary call since he was 15. His heart longs to be a change agent in the way the Church follows Jesus and participates in God’s mission and he loves to help people explore their calling and coach them as they create new ways to live into God’s mission. For 10 years Eric served on the staff of Baptist and Lutheran churches and has a Masters degree in Theology from Creighton University. After six years of pioneering a missional community in their neighborhood of Gifford Park in Omaha, NE, Eric and his wife Lisa founded Rooted Way – a community committed to the flourishing of Gifford Park and dedicated to inspiring, forming and sending a generation of missionaries to inhabit every place where people call home with the love of Jesus.
Eric and Lisa have three children: Norah, Brennen and Lachlan.

Matt Chapman

Matt Chapman leads a mentoring community embedded in the diverse Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Having experienced the beauty, the messiness, and the transforming power of intentional faith communities, Matt would be the first to tell you that it is absolutely worth striving for. He and his wife Amy have lived and led in three uniquely different communities in three very different states. Matt is a certified life coach and has also spent a number of years on the staff in a large, traditional church. Serving in these diverse settings has filled him with a passion to see the church–in all her forms–be places where people experience deep community and the church lives out her calling.

Steve Denney

Steve Denney is a pastor who has been on the leading edge of ministry and church trends for many years. In 1999 he helped plant what is now a mega-church in Sparks, Nevada. During his 6 years of ministry there, he began an alternative service to engage those outside the reach of traditional church. In 2006, Steve and his wife moved to East Village, a redeveloping neighborhood in downtown San Diego to further explore the fringes of ministry and establish a new kind of faith community. A significant part of Steve’s journey has been mentoring and working with pastors and leaders from suburban San Diego to the dusty villages of Uganda. Though he has a Masters degree in religion from Trinity Evangelical Divinity school, Steve is a life-long learner of following God in the way of Jesus. He and his incredible wife have two of the most amazing kids in the world.

Laurie Yackley

For the past 30 years Laurie has listened deeply to people’s stories and has helped them see, feel, and and respond to God’s presence and voice in their lives. Across generations and cultures she has experienced the joy of mentoring and discipling others in their journey towards a deeper relationship with God and participation in the life-giving mission of God. Laurie is both a certified Spiritual Director and certified Life Coach with Thresholds and she blends those two disciplines into her work with leaders and others who are simply seeking to be their very best selves. Laurie is a relational anchor in her missional community in Golden Hill and she loves spending time with her three grown children, her three children-in-law, and her three grandchildren, taking walks with friends and participating in her neighborhood Zumba class.

Jer Swigart

Jer Swigart guides communities out of the quandary of religion and into the simple rhythms of Jesus through immersive training and creative storytelling. He is a social-missional entrepreneur who innovates equipping environments that mobilize individuals and churches to join God in what He’s doing locally, nationally, and internationally. Twelve years ago, he pioneered The Open Door Community, a subversive church known for its distinct practices and engaged presence among the unique subcultures and neighborhoods of San Francisco’s East Bay. Most recently, he co-founded The Global Immersion Project, a national training initiative that is activating the North American Church as an instrument of peace in our world. Jer and his family live, love, and lead in Bend, OR.

Amber Ayers

Amber Ayers is a Jesus-following pastor and coach with a leadership strategy to help people envision and embody a hope-filled future – a future in which their unique gifts are mobilized in the missional community movement for the coming of the Kingdom. Formerly the co-founder and executive director of GreenHouse Ministry, an intentional community for vocational discernment with twenty-somethings, and pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, Amber has extensive experience in spiritual direction and life coaching. In addition to joining the coaching staff of Thresholds, she currently works for her alma mater, Fuller Seminary, as a Vocation Formation Team Leader, and the denomination in which she is ordained, ECO, as a discipleship coach. Along with her husband Matthew, she’s invested in their local Park Hill neighborhood in southeast Colorado Springs.

Ben Katt

Ben Katt is a visionary leader, experienced practitioner, and pioneer in the parish/neighborhood church movement. From 2008 through 2015, he planted and pastored Awake, a hyperlocal church rooted along Aurora Avenue in north Seattle, an area struggling with the realities of homelessness, addiction, mental illness, and sexual exploitation. He co-founded and served as the first executive director of the Aurora Commons, a neighborhood living room and resource center dedicated to fostering community, facilitating holistic renewal, and resource bridging. Ben co-founded and serves on the board of the Parish Collective, a growing network of churches rooted in neighborhoods and linked across cities. Additionally, Ben coaches and trains leaders of parish expressions throughout the Puget Sound area. Ben is husband to Cherie, and father to Evie, Jackson, and Zara.

Christiana Rice

Christiana Rice is an on-the ground practitioner and visionary voice in the missional movement, serving as a coach and trainer for missional leaders. With her husband Derek, she leads a neighborhood faith community in Golden Hill, San Diego. Christiana grew up in Tokyo, Japan, the daughter and granddaughter of missionaries to that region. Whether teaching and coaching global leaders, engaging the deeper spiritual longings of her neighbors or embracing the sacred mundane of daily life with her family and her community, Christiana seeks participate in God’s restorative mission in all things.

Jon Huckins

Jon Huckins is the Co-Founding Director of a peacemaking training organization called The Global Immersion Project whose work is to activate the USAmerican church as an instrument of peace. He helps lead a neighborhood-based faith community and is on staff with Thresholds as a leadership coach. Jon writes for numerous publications including, Red Letter Christians, Sojourners, and RELEVANT and has written two books, Teaching Through the Art of Storytelling and Thin Places: Six Postures for Creating and Practicing Missional Community. Jon has a master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary and lives in San Diego with his wife, Jan, three daughters (Ruby, Rosie & Lou) and one son (Hank) where they seek to live as a reconciling presence in their neighborhood of Golden Hill.

Rob Yackley

Before creating Thresholds, Rob Yackley was the lead architect and director of NieuCommunities, a collective of mentoring communities sprinkled around the world. He has helped birth and lead communities in over a dozen countries and mentors leaders in diverse cultural settings across the globe. Rob also started and helps lead an intentional community in Golden Hill, an eclectic little neighborhood in downtown San Diego where multiple cultures intersect and all call home. Rob is the husband of 1 amazing wife, the father of 3 awesome kids (plus 3 more by marriage), a doting grandfather, and a God-follower in the way of Jesus. He has a Masters of Leadership and Theology from Talbot Seminary but has learned the best stuff just following Jesus with people he loves. Rob co-authored the book, Thin Places, which tells the story of some of the communities he has helped create and shape.